MARIAM FLORENCE YUSUF

A mission to change the plight of teenage mothers and their children in their community, Mariam sets the example. Just having received a PhD scholarship in Medical Anthropology, Mariam’s research focuses on the gender issues around the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in rural areas of Kenya. Beyond her research, she is a co-founder of Sabon Africa Development Network Kenya, an organization to economically empower teenage mothers from Kayole Nairobi informal settlement. Mariam is also a coach and activist for women in leadership, children in juvenile justice system and youth employability. 

“My Mother Has Been the Iron Lady and Matriarch of My Family, She Embodies Strength and Resilience”

Q: Tell us a few things about your country, and also your life's story!

I was born and bred in Kenya. Kenya is the land of ‘safaris’ and is famous for producing some world-renowned athletes. My life is a mixture of memories, experiences, and moments, some happy and others not so much, but regardless, all these memories and moments have made me the person that I am today, and I do not regret going through them. I was born in a dual religion family (Muslim father and Christian mother). At first, I was privileged to thrive in this duality, and I could grasp the best of both worlds, but due to some ideological differences, things turned sour which led to my family’s disintegration. I lived a quarter of my life with my dad and the rest with my mother.

My motivation and the zeal to achieve my dreams and impact positively on my community stems from my mother and my childhood experiences. My mother has been the iron lady and matriarch of my family, she embodies strength and resilience. My mother taught me in order to succeed in the fast-changing world and embrace challenges, I needed to empower others and in turn, be empowered- mentor and be mentored. Further, that I was, and still am, a piece of ongoing art that needs constant modeling, shaping, and re-shaping. Part of the reason I love taking part in mentorship programmes and empowering the vulnerable women and girls in my community.

Q: How did you experience the global pandemic crisis, did it change your life or/and your views about the world? How?

The COVID-19 pandemic to me was both a memory and remains a continuous lived reality. I experienced what seemed to be unfair, wild, demanding, and sometimes painful, but also a soul-expanding situation. As the pandemic grew wider and moments more reflective, I realized I was and still remain divided, interrogating the purpose of my existence and my contribution to humanity. Finding myself in what seemed to be a completely different environment of social distance, face masking and navigating through the realities of remembering and forgetting what I thought was the norm, reawakened how I made sense of the world and the beings around it. The pandemic to me provided a place and space of appreciating and acknowledging the role and contribution of each living and non-living, visible, and invisible beings in one's existence.

Q: What are some of the key challenges in your society currently? 

Misinformation and disinformation have taken a deeper space in my society's social, cultural, political, and health care trajectory, causing greater harm to how people interact with and within their everyday structures of realities. In addition, poverty, ill-health, poor housing, a rise in teenage motherhood, crime, and unemployment is becoming a huge menace in my community.

Q: Share with us some of the hurdles that you had to overcome in your life so far? How did you handle them?

Despite a challenging early childhood culminating in teenage motherhood, I have dared to dream and scale seemingly insurmountable hurdles due to determination. Over time, I have used this difficult upbringing to influence and encourage others in similar situations. I have remained committed to my goal of being educated and becoming someone in life as well as fulfilling my motherhood role. In 2021 I was among the successful individuals awarded a fully funded Ph.D. scholarship in Medical Anthropology by Oslo University Norway in collaboration with the University of Nairobi Kenya. I use my personal journey to mentor and empower the teenage mothers in my community who are dissuaded by staggering depression, isolation, stigma, and discontinued education due to poverty and cultural barriers.

Q: If you were to ask one thing from our current leaders, what would it be?

How do you maintain a work-life balance and still manage to do something that positively impacts the community around you?

Q: Why is the role of a mentor important for you?

I have learned that in order to be a very efficient and productive mentor and social change activist, you need guidance and some form of direction from people who have gone before you in their various ventures or life journey. Thus, for me, a mentor is not only a guide but also a person that aids in striking a conversation with you for the purpose of learning, relearning, and unlearning some things in your leadership or personal life.

Q: Do you have a lesson that life has taught you and you would like to share?  

From very early in life, I have learned that I am and still am, the artist or curator of my own life. Through guidance, hard work, and my interaction with those around me, I have seen the significance of shaping and reshaping our own destiny through the work, commitment, and determination we confer on ourselves. Every route or decision taken will somehow impact our existence and leave a footprint. The shape and lasting effect of the footprint depends entirely on the nature of our actions in life.

Q: Name a project, a foundation or a person in your country that you think is doing great work in helping improve other people's lives!

Clean Start organization in Kenya led by Teresa Njoroge.

Q: What are some of the challenges that women in your country face and what efforts are made towards gender equality?

One of the top priority areas of Africa Agenda 2063 aspiration 6 is to ensure that no one is left behind in development processes, including women and girls. However, in Kenya women continue to face challenges due to sexual and gender-based violence which has become a national concern and exacerbated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Kenya has made important strides in advancing gender equality, with the enactment of laws on domestic violence, and sexual offenses, affirmative procurement opportunities for women, representation of women in public and elective office, and establishment of affirmative funds for women-owned businesses. Despite progress, the pace of achieving gender equality is still slow. The slow pace is a result of the deep-seated discriminatory and patriarchal gender norms, attitudes, and practices as well as poverty-related inequalities, and actions that are coerced by politics of division within the different gender groups. Empowered women contribute to peaceful coexistence, health, and productivity of whole families and communities, and they improve prospects for the next generation.

Q: Share with us a phrase, a poem or a story that means something to you.

One night I dreamed a dream.

As I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.

For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,

One belonging to me and one to my Lord. 

After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand.

I noticed that at many times along the path of my life, especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints. 

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. "Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,

You'd walk with me all the way.

But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life, there was only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me." 

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you Never, ever, during your trials and testings.

When you saw only one set of footprints,

It was then that I carried you."

Q: Share with us a project that you would like to make happen for your country or a cause that you are passionate about.

I am working on having our own training center for the economic empowerment of teenage mothers from the informal settlements of Nairobi with an in-house daycare center for the children of our teenage mothers.